Late to the Party
by Evil-Ekat
Summary: Giovanni moves on from the Tohjo Falls in search of a rumor turned legend: the boy on the mountain. Needless to say, he is met with a surprise.


**April 17 2017: This is a rewrite of an older one-shot, I decided to delete the old version and repost, because this story still makes me smile on a bad day.**

 **Original AN: This is not an "angst-ridden Red on the mountain talks to someone" story, even if it seems like it at first. I can't say more without giving anything away. I never found story where Giovanni is that person up on the mountain with Red. And decided to do something about it. I mean he was right in the Tohjo Falls! They were practically next door to each other after R/B/G/Y!**

 **Rhydon can't use rock climb, much to my frustration. Ryhdon and rhyhorn are not obtainable on Mt. Silver. Also infuriating. There is a sad lack of zubats in Mt. Silver, which is not as annoying as one may think. I did my research, but there are one or two creative liberties a die-hard of the games would notice. I just wanted to disclaim that, as I did do my research to make things sit with cannon better, and get a refresher on some things.**

 **Not to be taken seriously.**

 **Read, review, and enjoy.**

* * *

"Damn boy. If the rumors are wrong that pokémon centre won't survive the night."

Giovanni cursed the child again and again as he trudged his way up the blustery peak. The Nurse Joy had warned him that monsoon season was starting soon. The surrounding area would be closed off to all trainers, on the orders of the Indigo League.

"Well then damn them too," the greying man snorted.

Didn't they know who he was? No, of course they did not. Few seemed to care about who he was any more, what his syndicate had stood for. He had heard the pleading of his executives, begging him to come back so that way they could reform. And gain what? Even without his wealth and connections, things remained the same. That was to say, bleak. Just like the Lugia-damned mountain he was scaling in hopes of finding a ghost. Bleak.

He kicked through the tall mountain grasses, without a care for what may have been hiding beneath his boots. There seemed to be no pokémon in the tall grass though. It was most likely that they had retreated to their burrows and caves as monsoon season set upon the mountain with a raging fury.

Coming to a ledge, Giovanni started up at it. Now, he could either find a different way to get to higher ground, or he could head down the mountain and wait for a better time. Of course, he did not fail to notice the perfect little indents that marred the rocky face. Giovanni smirked. Mt. Silver had always been his home away from homes. It was the one place they would never look for him, even if the police officer guarding the gateway realized who he was. Not many people were able to collect all sixteen badges after all.

He knew the mountain like the back of his hand. It was where he had first met an able member of his current party, a ryhorn who proved to be useful, despite being cast out by her pack when she didn't evolve with them. She would later prove her desire to grow stronger. She purposely fought against evolution into a rhydon to become more powerful than the rest. Whoever said rhyhorn were not intelligent until they evolved were sadly mistaken. She easily became one of his strongest partners. Together they- no, he! He was the master of his weapons!

He would go on to do powerful with them...

Anyway, no one would ever be able to find him hidden on the mountain. He reached for his belt, and unclipped a pokéball.

His trusted Rhydon materialized before him, tensed and ready for battle. Seeing no imminent challenger, the drill pokémon turned to his partner, awaiting a command.

"Rhy?"

"Rhydon, we need to get up this ledge," Giovanni instructed.

"Rhy!" Rhydon cried in confirmation.

The pokémon lowered herself so that it was on all fours, allowing his partner to sit on his back. The man made sure to get a good hold on the ridges between Rhydon's armored back, and then commanded her to begin ascent.

The trip was slow and precarious, but nowhere near as dangerous as walking by foot would have been. The wind shrieked and howled, causing his trench coat to wildly flap around. It offered no protection from the cold of Mt. Silver. Once they reached the top, he dismounted his pokémon. Giovanni debated recalling Rhydon, but something made him choose not to.

"Rhy?"

She curiously tilted her head.

"You can handle a little bit of cold."

"Rhy, rhydon!"

The duo continued their ascent up the mountain. The wind grew stronger, and bits of hail started to fling down upon the two. Rhydon was unaffected thanks to his tough hide, and continued at her usual lumbering pace. Giovanni, on the other hand, was completely unprepared for this. All he had left on him was his black coat, and matching fedora hat. His shoes were sensible, but his leather gloves did not keep any warmth in. They were meant for style, not climbing up a Lugia-forsaken mountain just so he could find out if some damn child really hid up here like the rumours said. Unfortunately for the ex-Rocket, the latter was the exactly what he was doing.

Searching for a ghost, a legend really. The boy wonder who had somehow managed to do it all, and then quit. Just like that. The League was sent in to uproar as he just up and vanished. No one knew what had happened to him. Whether it was an accident, or someone had kidnapped him was unknown. Funnily enough, he was often cast as a suspect. His friends and family refused to comment. Giovanni only knew because of a simple fact. One needed to shower and eat.

Apparently, the thought had been replayed over and over in his mind long enough for him to want to look for the boy as well. He had heard the rumours before, of a small child who lived on the mountain. Who stood there, doing nothing in the cold. Standing, without a jacket on, in a place that people said even Articuno could not bear to live in during the monsoon. The landscape was harsh and rugged though, it made sense. Only the toughest of the tough could ever think of scaling the precipice in hopes of discovering some sort of strong pokémon to tame.

The kid had done it all. He had defeated everyone he possibly could have, became the champion over them all, defeated his syndicate without doing so much as batting an eye. The rumours of course then made sense to the weary traveler. They became the truth of perfect clarity to Giovanni. For what place made a better throne for the King to sit than the top of the world?

Man and pokémon wandered through endless chambers and tunnels. Pummeling rocks, and shifting boulders out of their way. No wild pokémon dared pick a fight with them. They all knew that a storm was coming, and needed to hunker down before the blizzard hit and the unforgiving winter began. Then, something surprising happened.

They reached the top.

Giovanni did not even realize it at first, until Rhydon gave his hand a gentle- at least for a pokémon of her stature- nudge. He snapped out of his trance, and looked around. There was nothing as far as the eye could see. Had he not been warned, he might have walked straight off the edge. The clouds covered much, and the coming blizzard blocked out most of the sunlight.

"Some throne."

Rhydon whimpered. Giovanni was surprised. He had never heard the sturdy pokémon show such open weakness before. He whirled around to reprimand the beast for being so pathetic, but the words died on his lips as he felt it too. There was something wrong about this place. There was barely room for both he and Rhydon to walk along the icy path. He recalled the drill pokémon, quietly thanking her for a job well done.

As he walked down the path, a silhouette emerged from the grey darkness. Standing alone at the very edge of the mountain. Stiff, as if the wind did not have any effect on him, except for the ruffling of his vest and hat.

"Red," Giovanni greeted in a gravelly tone.

Red turned to face him, seemingly unsurprised. Was it just him, or did the boy's face look hollow? Had he grown taller? What?! It was not like he cared! How could he even wonder about such trivial things at a time like this?! The boy stared at him with unamused eyes.

"..."

"You're standing on my throne."

"..."

"You became the very best, like no one ever was. You caught them all. Now what?"

"..."

"This was my throne at one time too. When I was young, foolish... Believed in so many naïve little things. I spent my days up here in the cold."

"..."

"Once I got off the mountain, I discovered that just because the world stopped for me, it didn't stop for anyone else. Things changed in the time I was gone. Things were different. My views of everything had changed. My ideals became nothing more than fickle little dreams, as the truth became clear."

"..."

"It reminds me of a story from a far off-land. A tale of twin heros. Both fighting from the opposite end of the spectrum. One dreamed and hoped, while the other saw the world for what it truly was. Which side was better to fight for? Was it negativity, or realism to believe in the truth? Was it naïvety, or hope to trust ideals? No one knew, and war was waged as neither could agree."

"..."

"One day, when I finally took over the world, I would find the legendary dragon of truth. Together, no one would stop us. Only one of many plans of course, Articuno was always my favourite flying-type."

"..."

"I named my son after the mountain. I wanted him to one day be as powerful and sturdy as it, unyielding against the wind."

"..."

Giovanni had no idea what he had just said or revealed to the boy. The words had just come from somewhere, and he did not know what to say to the child who lived on the mountain top. What was he supposed to say? Do?

"Aren't you going to say anything?"

Red snorted.

"And here I thought my dad hated me when he named me Red," the boy scoffed.

Giovanni turned scarlet. This was not the reply he was excepting! He was supposed to say something dramatic in reply, and then they would have a battle in which no matter the outcome would result in another dramatic moment before one or both of them left the mountain!

"Insolent pup! I ought to push you off of this damned cliff right now after all you've done!"

"That would make your second failed attempt to murder me today," Red quipped back.

"Second?" Giovanni wondered, anger fading for a moment.

"Ya', you almost killed me with that boring speech of yours!" Red exclaimed, waving his arms. "I thought I was going to die if I had to listen to you babble on any longer."

"B-but I climbed up the mountain when no one could find you! I gave dramatic speech and everything!"

Red just rolled his eyes.

"I have someone "find me" at least twice a week. Just yesterday your son came up here and yelled at me, stating that it was my fault Team Rocket is running amok again."

"Silver could never make it up here! The boy is to weak for-"

Red held up Silver's signature jacket. Mouth agape, the man started at it before snapping back to his senses once more.

"So maybe I underestimated the brat. But I bet no one has performed a speech as great as mine!"

The champion just gave a shrug.

"Meh, it was so-so. I'd give it a seven, maybe seven and a half if you had confessed your undying love for me which stemmed from childhood like Blue did on Friday."

"SEVEN AND A HALF?!"

"Seven," he mildly corrected.

"But how?! I spent an entire journey reflecting on events of the past and how they affected the world as I knew it!"

"Honestly?" Red asked. "I prefer Lance's attempt to move the Pokémon League to the top of the mountain. And Crystal has one killer left hook when she's angry. Heck, even the Nurse Joy comes up here every other day! You're a bit late to the party."

Even the Nurse Joy?! What was this world coming to when the happy, pink, woman was able to scale the mountain every other day to visit this boy?!

"Didn't you see the elevator I had installed in the back?" Red innocently asked.

"ELEVATOR?!"

"Well yeah," Red replied, rolling his eyes. "If you had asked Nurse Joy, she would have showed you where it was."

"You had an elevator installed into the mountain?!"

"I had a lot of visitors, and the mountain was too dangerous for them."

"B-but-" Giovanni continued to sputter.

The boy had an elevator installed into the mountain, just so that way he didn't have to rough it for a little while?! Why would he even bother to stay up on this mountain top?! What was the point?! Everything in his entire journey to the summit was for naught!

Just then, there was a tiny "ding!" as the hidden elevator revealed itself from the mountain face it was disguised as.

"Hey Red!"

"S'up Kiddo?"

Giovanni whirled around. Archer? Arianna?! What were his executives doing on the mountain, visiting the number one enemy of Team Rocket?! Sure, he was allowed to do it because this moment was supposed be emotionally compelling, but his highest-ranking employees?!

"We brought a picnic this ti-" Petrel faded off as he saw who was standing on the mountaintop.

"Oh, h-hey boss," Arianna nervously greeted.

"Maybe we should come back another time," Proton quietly reflected.

Petrel dropped the picnic basket he was holding. Arianna and Proton flung their fold out chairs and instant picnic table to the floor, so they could all furiously press the "close door" button with Archer.

"If I ever reform Team Rocket, you're all fired."

The door closed, and the executives were safe from their sort-of boss' wrath. For now. With those distractions were gone, he turned back to face Red.

"As I was saying," Giovanni huffed. "You're supposed to-"

"Ow Blue! Stop doing that!"

"Get out of my face Misty!"

"Ugh! Keep your hands to yourself Brock!"

"Your yelling is disturbing the psychic vibrations of the mountain."

"Man! I've never seen this many zubats before! At least, not since, THE WAR!"

"Not this story again Surge!"

"Boy Red, you reek!"

Seven gym leaders made their way to the top of the mountain with the aid of-

"AN ESCALATOR?!"

"Too many people were using the elevator, so I had an escalator installed, just in case."

The rather large group realized that Red was occupied with the latest victim of his "Alone on the Mountain" scheme. No doubt this was probably some form of personal revenge for all the times Team Rocket had gotten in the way of his journey. So, the group decided that their round of extreme king of the hill could wait, and chose to head back down.

Giovanni was now beyond confused and angered at all of the bizarre events that were going on around him. None of this made any sense! He had just come up here to finally figure out where the champion had vanished to. Yet it seemed like half of Kanto and Johto already knew!

The ex-Rocket grabbed Red by the collar of his vest and snarled, "give me one reason why I shouldn't throw you off this mountain now."

"You can't."

"W-well why not?!"

"My feet are frozen to the ground after standing here for so long."

"WHAT?!"

Red winced at his yelling. The guy really needed to tone down the cologne. He pointed to his shoes, and tried to move his legs little. But they were completely frozen. It would take nothing short of Ho-Oh to melt him out of his icy spot.

"That's why I had the elevator and escalator installed."

"So you mean my journey up here meant nothing," Giovanni calmly stated.

"Yes."

"That all my words depicting times and trials meant nothing to you."

"I hear the same speech five times a week."

"This is easily the worst-kept secret in all of the region."

"Yes."

"And worst of all, I wasted my time climbing this mountain for no reason."

"Yes."

The man burst into full-on childish blubbering.

"Hey, cheer up! You can always take the water slide down!"

 **Fin**


End file.
